Lord Santa

Zandore's Boarding Academy

Midori said
'Hmm... robotics, computer science, calculus, applied science, biology, a~~nd general PE. I think that's all of them. I already have plans to build an ASIMO or something similar.'

Able had heard of the ASIMO, which was apparently a super advanced humanoid robot, which was amazing.
'You're planning to build one of those?' Able asked in amazement. 'That's sounds awesome!'
"What about your classes? Are you taking anything interesting?"
'Well, for me, I think I have Physics, Astronomy, Astro-physics and General PE.' Able said, listing the subjects he remembered.
'I'm trying to be an astronaut. But now that I think about it, I wouldn't really need Astronomy or Astro-physics unless I was making the rocket myself.' Able thought out loud. 'Whoops.' Able said, giving a silly smile. 'Anyway, maybe we'll be in the same class in PE.'

Deep Ground Online: War of Strangers

If anyone wants him, Taro is on the roof, sleeping with a cat on his chest.

Edit: Is it alright if I keep this cat? I kind of want to keep the cat.

Deep Ground Online: War of Strangers

Schrodinger

Taro's day was shaping up to be pretty... odd? All things considered, it was definitely a little odd, to say the least. Hiding in a box? Check. Stray cat on your chest? Check. Accidentally eavesdropping on a meeting of the kings in real life? Check. Taro was either really lucky or really unlucky. The latter was more likely.

Taro was in the box, waiting for the cat to wake up. There was probably no way he'd be in time now, and he didn't feel like going to class any more, even though he should. He was feeling somewhat sleepy. He might've skipped the rest of school, if the lights hadn't flickered on. Someone's footsteps were echoing into the dilapidated halls, someone he likely didn't know. His first thought was that it was the 3 guys he'd pissed off, but there was only one person. He heard the gymnasium door open and heard a familiar 'Hello!'.
'Hey, I'm Michael. Thanks for coming out.' The other person said.
Michael? As in Michael Faye? The one in the message? Taro thought. If it was Michael, then what was he doing here? And who was the other person who just came in? She sounded oddly familiar. Their conversation went for a little before Taro heard something interesting.
'Aren't you a little too young to be King?' Michael asked the mysterious person.
Huh? King? What? Taro thought.
What would kings be doing here? Actually, if the announcement he'd gotten earlier was any indication, then Michael was the black king? Does that mean the black king invited all the other kings?
'Drop what, red king?' The mysterious young-sounding girl said.
Huh? Red King?? Taro thought. Who was red king? Wait, was Michael the red king? But... Isn't he the black king?
'Pleased to meet ya. I'm shooting star, the yellow king.' The girl said.
The yellow king??? Taro thought incredulously. She sounds so young!
Taro could hardly believe that 2 kings were talking right outside his hiding place. And there was a cat on top of him.
Their conversation was cut off and Taro heard yet another person walking in.
'Yo, Lucy.' Michael (assuming it was actually Michael) said to the newcomer. 'You're a king, huh?'
Another King??? Taro thought.
'Hi Lucy.' The yellow King said in greeting. 'Sorry I couldn't do much for your city.'
What happened to her city? Taro wondered, confused. Did she mean the recently destroyed green city?
Taro had read on the forums that the crater he'd been unceremoniously dumped at was actually the previous green city. Did that mean the newcomer was the green king? This was a little too much for Taro. The 3 had a conversation while Taro was busy processing the information.
'Yo.' Someone said, out of the blue.
It was probably safe to assume that they were another King. Which was really hard to process. 4 level nines in close proximity to him, and they were most likely older than him. Even the Yellow King, who sounded relatively young, was most likely older than him. he really wanted to leave, but he didn't have a chance to.
'So we're waiting on 2 more, right?' Michael, the red king, said.
'Nope, just one.' Another newcomer said.
That's 5 kings. Taro said. I wonder if the other 2 are coming.
Taro probably needed to leave. Taro tried to elevate his torso slowly, but as he shifted, the cat moved. Taro froze, not wanting to be found. The cat shifted to a new position and settled down. Taro sank back down in defeat. He'd have to wait for an opportunity.
'We're missing the white king.' The yellow king said. 'That's to be expected, though. I heard the white king disbanded the guild, then resigned.'
That happened? I didn't know that. Taro thought. When had that happened? And why? There were a lot of things going on this week, and Taro didn't know if he had a place in it.

Their conversation continued, going from Silver Jester to plans for the future. They began discussing how to kill the Black King, and Taro's feeling of not belonging became stronger. Just then, the second newcomer spoke up.
'I think you may want to stop and hear this.' He said. 'The black guild is no more.'
Huh? Taro thought.
'Moon Rider's city has been razed to the ground. Nothing remains but rubble.' He continued.
What- Since when! Taro thought.
How could that just have happened? They were discussing stuff for a while. This technically couldn't have happened... But it did, apparently. Somehow. Taro still couldn't really believe it.

Suddenly, the cat shifted. Taro looked at it in suspense. Was it getting up, or was it just shifting. To Taro's horror, the cat rose onto all fours. The cat stretched and yawned, awakened. The cat looked on Taro and rubbed his face onto Taro's neck. It took all of Taro's will power not to move.
Don't... leave... the box... Taro thought desperately. The cat paced up and down on Taro's chest then looked up at the entrance of the box.
Wait, it can't- Taro stretched out his hand quickly.
Too late, the cat poked his head out of the box. Taro rose quickly to grab the cat with both hands. Too late, he realised he had revealed himself. He looked quickly to the location of the kings, to see something he wasn't expecting. They were all clutching their heads in pain. He scanned their faces quickly and found that he recognised one of them, a girl from his class. Taro hesitated. What did he do? What could he do? What was even happening? He didn't know anything. There was nothing indicating what could've caused their pain. Taro would've liked to help, but he was too scared and had too little knowledge. Doing something that was typical of him, he grabbed the cat and ran. He sprinted out of the door and back towards the school. Taro wasn't proud of his cowardice, but he didn't want to be discovered. He really hated his weakness. 5 people in pain, and Taro couldn't do anything. One more thing to change on his big list of changes to make.

How to skip school

Taro sighed wearily, slumping at his desk. He'd barely made it in time for morning home room and he was tired. All that running was more running than he'd usually do in real life. More than that, he felt a little sick. He couldn't help the Kings who were in pain. Or rather, he wouldn't help. He wanted to help them, he really did. In the end, he didn't know why he ran away. He felt horrible, both physically and mentally. He certainly didn't feel up for the first subject he had that day. He sighed and looked out of the window, into the blue sky which was freckled with small clouds. He probably didn't even have the right books for whatever subject it was. He was seriously considering skipping it. Taro closed his eyes.
A small tap at the window got Taro's attention.
'Meow'
Taro's eyes snapped open. In front of him, behind the window, was the white cat he'd met in the old gym. It was pawing at the window, confused as to why it couldn't move further.
You can't come in! Taro thought, trying to will the cat to leave.
The cat stopped its futile efforts and looked at Taro piteously, with a look that tugged on Taro's heartstrings.
I should do something about this. Taro said, staring at the cat. But Taro didn't want to miss class... Surprisingly enough, Taro's decision was easy to come to. He knew what he wanted to do.
'Excuse me, Sensei.' He said, getting the attention of the teacher. 'I'm not feeling too well. Can I go to the infirmary?'

Minutes later, Taro was playing with the white cat on the rooftop. Why? Well, Taro appreciated cats. He would also definitely not be able to concentrate with it outside the window, especially with the events of this morning fresh in his mind. Playing with the cat helped him to forget about all the things he'd heard and all the stuff he saw. He didn't need to worry about it any more.

Taro toyed with the cat, toying with a foxtail he'd picked from the garden. The cat played around, madly trying to grab the foxtail. Taro raised the foxtail high in the air. The cat prepared to pounce on it and leaped. The cat missed the foxtail and landed on Taro's face, paws outstretched.
'Ow!' Taro said, cat on his face.
It's claws were still undeveloped so it didn't exactly hurt, but Taro was in a good mood. He lifted the small cat and grinned at it in the air.
'You're still just a kitten, huh? I wonder if you have a name.' Taro said, smiling.
'Meow.' The cat mewed happily.
Taro set the kitten down on his chest. The cat sat on his chest, and then stretched, curled up and fell asleep again, foxtail forgotten.
'Heh.' Taro laughed. 'You sleep like a kitten as well.'
Taro let his arms fall to his side, took a deep breath and let it go as he stared out into the sky. Taro had skipped class. A first, he had to admit. This was an uncharacteristically impulsive act for Taro, but it didn't feel all that bad. It was rather peaceful, really. All of his ineptitudes, his troubles and the recent events, disappeared into the boundless blue sky. Taro closed his eyes and sighed, satisfied.
Maybe I should do this more often. Taro thought, resting his tired bones and forgetting about the morning events.

Zandore's Boarding Academy

Midori said
"How did you get to be Rank B anyway? I mean I build robots and I'm only Rank C so you must be pretty amazing to be a rank higher."

'You build robots? That's so cool!' Able said, eyes sparkling. It wasn't everyday that you met someone with prosthetic legs, after all, and he was glad that the one person he met with prosthetic legs was friendlier than she first appeared. He didn't mind the pronunciation of his name, he found it hard to say many Japanese style names, so it didn't bother him if someone had trouble with his name. Maybe he would already make a new friend. It was shaping up to be a good day!
'You must be really smart! I don't know how I'm in rank B myself. I'm not that great' Able said with a sheepish grin. 'Nice to meet you, Kobayashi-San! What subjects are you doing, by the way?'

Zandore's Boarding Academy

Animus said
You and Mazoy sure love bloody legends. Accepted!

It's easy coming up with spooks :P Not so easy coming up with something that isn't scary, though.

Zandore's Boarding Academy

I got an idea for urban legends. Here we go

red rain Doll
Legend has it, that on a stormy night, one well wishing student made a rain doll. An A class student living in Prominence. She had run out of white cloth, so she made the doll out of some red cloth she had lying around. A student, late for curfew rushed back to their dorms. The student looked up and beheld the body of the well wishing girl was seen hanging in her own window, instead of the doll. A flash of lightning, and it was gone. That night, the rain around Prominence became red, like blood, and the looming precipices began to drip with the crimson fluid. The next morning, the rain continued and the girl didn't appear in class. They checked on her dorm to find the door locked. Forcing the door, they succeeded in opening the room to find... nothing. Not a trace of any living soul. Her books were out, as if she had been studying. The only thing amiss was the window, opened, and the red doll was dripping blood. The girl couldn't be found on the island, no matter how hard they tried. No trace of her was left. The blood of the night disappeared mysteriously and the blood of the doll was tested and found to be the very same blood as the missing girl's. Legend has it that anyone who hangs a red rain doll during a storm will vanish, only leaving their red rain doll dripping with their blood.

Yeh, there it is.

Zandore's Boarding Academy

Able had a lot of questions, but there might be no one to answer them. He could probably ask the people next to him, but he doubted he would get answers. Judging from the guy who appeared from nowhere's speech, the rest of the people here were in the same boat as him-both physically and school-wise.

All he knew about Zandore's boarding academy was that it was good. Also, it was on an island. And, it was pretty interesting, but that's most of what he knew. The rest of what he knew came from a brochure. Well, there were 3 dorms, Prominence, West View and Academia, and there was a class system consisting of seven letters from S down to E. He guessed it went S, A, B, C, D, E. It wouldn't really make sense otherwise, but Able didn't know what S was doing behind A. Did the S stand for something? Speaking of rankings...

Able picked up his envelope and opened it.
'Oh.' Able said aloud. He was in B class. That was good, right? Though without any comparison, it didn't mean much. But considering there were 7 classes starting from S, it meant he was in the 3rd highest class of students. This kind of confused him, because he didn't do too well academically. Though his physics skill and athletic abilities probably attributed to it. Able looked around, wondering what everyone else got. He couldn't exactly see, however, as they were already reading their own envelopes. He turned back to his own envelope. The West view dorm... Able had put that as his preference, bot because it looked good (which it did), but because if he was near the beach, he could swim every morning. He liked swimming, after all. Though he'd have to put it off in winter. Swimming in winter would be stupid, even for him. Nevertheless, he was glad he landed in West View. He would get a lot of exercise from swimming. It was apparently a fair distance away from the school, but he could just run there anyway. Able read on.

Allowance... 15000 yen??? He read. Was that a lot? It looked like a lot. He didn't know the conversion rates to pounds so he had nothing to compare to. He would probably just find out how much he can buy with 15000 yen and base it off of that. Though, one thing to note... They'd apparently received 20000 yen as compensation for... cyber terrorism? And they were a week late? That didn't make for a good start. He'd likely have to catch up on missed studies as well. But cyber terrorists? Well, he shouldn't pry too far into that. The guy from before who disappeared just know made it seem like it wasn't his business.

Able read on to his confirmed list of subjects. Physics, Astronomy, Astrophysics, General PE. Good, all the subjects he wanted. There were some weird ones on the subject list which included magic and assassination, which Able thought was extremely strange. He wasn't really into magic and didn't know who would choose those subjects. Though if this academy existed for as long as the brochure said it had, magic would probably be taken a lot. By who, Able couldn't guess. In fact, the people at the conference right now, his fellow passengers, weren't exactly normal either.

The first one that caught his attention when he entered the room (after the faceplant) was a girl with prosthetic legs. That was a little weird. Next was a green haired guy with a gun, which was... odd. The third and fourth to catch his attention was a guy with golden eyes and a white haired girl who had apparently stepped over him after he tripped. The rest looked relatively normal, though he didn't doubt they had special features which weren't immediately apparent. After his greeting (which no one responded to), he took a seat between the girl with prosthetic legs and a relatively normal looking person (victor) and waited. The last girl came in and the conference began. Which brought up the greatest question he had. What did he do now?

He looked at his seat neighbours. They were still reading the contents of their envelopes. He really wanted to bring up the prosthetic legs, but that was way too insensitive even for Able. And the other guy didn't look to be in a sociable mood. He looked around, and everyone was either still reading their letters or already finished with them.
'So...' Able said experimentally. 'What do we do now?'

Zandore's Boarding Academy

By the way, is there a martial arts type subject I could study? I'd swap out chemistry for it if there was one.

Deep Ground Online: War of Strangers

That's good, the second arc will be wrapping up pretty soon then.

Deep Ground Online: War of Strangers

When will the King colab finish?